Before 2019, the Port of Bergen faced a pressing question: How could they understand and reduce the environmental footprint of cruise ships during port stays? Despite growing public concern, there was no clear or consistent way to measure ships’ emissions or environmental performance. The port collaborated with DNV and 10 fellow Norwegian ports to develop a shared solution. The ports of Bergen, Trondheim, and Stavanger coordinated the project. Together, the consortium built the Environmental Port Index (EPI), a digital system for collecting, verifying, and reporting detailed environmental data from cruise ships.
Each time a ship leaves an EPI port, it submits a standardised report covering air emissions, fuel quality and consumption, shore power usage, and technical configuration. These data form the basis of the EPI score—a clear, comparable indicator of a ship’s environmental performance relative to international emission standards.
Launched with four pilot ports in 2019, including Oslo, Trondheim, Stavanger and Bergen, EPI has grown into a network of 40 ports across five countries. Coordinated by the EPI Secretariat at the Port of Bergen and supported by DNV, the initiative has benchmarked more than 9,200 cruise calls. The results are encouraging: average EPI scores have risen from 30 per cent in 2019 to 54 per cent in 2024. For 2024, NOₓ and SOₓ emissions per port stay have been reduced by 24 and 47 per cent, respectively.
Looking ahead, EPI aims to expand to new regions and vessel segments, enhance transparency through real-time data integration, and support regulatory development by providing trusted, aggregated environmental insights. By combining collaborative data governance with a ready-to-use incentive model, EPI empowers ports of all sizes with a scalable path to UN Sustainable Development Goals 9, 11, 12, 13, and 17.